Research Incentive Grants Officer: Department of Research and Innovation

SUMMARY:
The University of Fort Hare is a vibrant, equitable and sustainable African university, committed to teaching and research excellence at the service of its students, scholars and the wider community.

Applications are invited from qualified and experienced candidates for the above-stated permanent position in the Department of Research and Innovation at the University of Fort Hare (UFH). The main purpose of the position is to coordinate capturing and screening research outputs for submission to the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET), process page fee payments, ensure compliance with DHET research output rules and policies, ensure compliance with relevant university policies & procedures, calculate research units, facilitating research outputs audits, disseminate information regarding DHET rules and the university research incentive grants policy. In addition, the position will facilitate the disbursement of research output subsidy funds to the research cost centres of awardees

POSITION INFO:
MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:

• Honours degree
• At least 4 years of relevant work experience
• Experience in the process of applying DHET rules, monitoring research incentives, and financial accounting for awarded grants is essential
• In-depth knowledge of DHET rules and processes relating to incentive grants and page fees

• Coordinating and screening research outputs for submission to the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET)
• Facilitating the annual capturing of research outputs on the online system for all Faculties, Research Institutes, Research Centres, Research Chairs, Research Niche Areas, and other UFH research entities.
• Verifying adherence to standards & rules
• Circulating & coordinating research outputs for amendment/compliance with standards
• Updating details on the online research outputs capturing systems

• Facilitating Research Outputs Audits
• Verifying units per submitted research output based on the number of authors and their institutional affiliations.
• Contacting researchers and requesting all the information required by the auditors
• Providing information and documentation requested by auditor

• Disseminating information regarding DHET rules, grant policy
• Disseminating adverts and calls for submissions
• Disseminating updated DHET list of accredited journals
• Disseminating DHET and the university's research-related policies
• Facilitating policy awareness workshops for researchers and postgraduate students

• Disbursing research output subsidy funds to research cost centres of the awarded researchers
• Preparing incentive loading forms for submission to line manager for approval
• Facilitating opening research accounts for newly awarded researchers
• Preparing student incentive loading forms submission to line manager for approval
• Liaising with Finance Department to drive transfer of funds and payment of requisitions
• Monitoring cost centre allocations to ensure accuracy and prompt disbursement of research incentive funds

• Report on research units metrics
• Drawing up reports on the number of publication units produced by each researcher
• Drawing up reports on the number of publication units produced by each Faculty, Research Institute, Research Centres, Research Chairs, Research Niche Areas, and other UFH structures.
• Drawing up reports on amount of incentive funds awarded per Faculty

• Computer competency in the Microsoft pack (Excel, PowerPoint)
• A high level of professional and ethical conduct.
• Good interpersonal skills
• Communication skills
• Quantitative and analytical competencies
• Problem-solving capability
• Detail-oriented
• Time management competency